Rear Adm. Roy Kitchener, Expeditionary Strike Group 2 commander, has taken command of a task force that supports the U.S. Agency for International Development‘s relief operations in Haiti in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.

The U.S. Navy said Monday Joint Task Force-Matthew is comprised of amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Seabees from Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, Tactical Air Control Squadron 21, Naval Beach Group 2 components, Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 28 and the Fleet Surgical Team.

The ESG-2-led JTF-Matthew will aid the delivery and distribution of relief supplies as well as transport humanitarian assistance personnel in Haiti, the Navy added.

USAID works with JTF-Matthew to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to Haitians at the request of that country’s government.

Some U.S. Army officials have said the military branch’s modernization efforts are related to its readiness goals and objectives to help unburden soldiers as they engage with adversaries, the Army News Service reported Friday.

David Vergun writes Katharina McFarland, acting assistant secretary of the Army, told a panel discussion at the Association of the U.S. Army conference that new technology will help to remove the extra load from soldiers.

“We need to make him able to spend more time thinking rather than doing,” McFarland added.

She cited unmanned ground and aerial systems as tools to expand a soldier’s scope on the battlefield.

Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley Jr., deputy chief of staff of G-2, told the forum that Army troops have been encumbered by large volumes of sensors and communications data over the last decade.

He recommended the use of artificial intelligence to help soldiers process the data and cited information sharing with coalition partners as one area that needs what he calls federation to transmit data to coalition users in near-real time.

Lt. Gen. Gustave Perna, commander of the Army Materiel Command, also called for the streamlining of the branch’s acquisition and requirements processes.

He said he believes “alignment between the requirements, generators and acquisition process” can help the Army manage the costs of sustaining weapons and equipment.

The U.S. Army plans to send as many as 500 soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division Headquarters at Fort Riley in Kansas to Iraq this fall to help train, advise and assist Iraqi coalition troops and security forces.

The 1st Infantry Division Headquarters will relieve 101st Airborne Division troops and assume the role of Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command-Iraq as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the Army said Friday.

“Our Big Red One soldiers are well-trained and ready to continue the tremendous support the 101st Airborne Division and the Coalition are providing to our Iraqi allies,” said Maj. Gen. Joseph Martin, incoming commanding general of the 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley.

“We will assist in training Iraqi commanders, staffs, soldiers, and police officers as they plan and conduct counter-ISIL operations in both the Tigris and Euphrates River valleys, with a central focus on the City of Mosul,” Martin added.

The U.S. Air Force and its international allies have scheduled a meeting Norway for next month to discuss efforts in cooperative research, development, testing and evaluation of space technologies for joint military operations, Space News reported Friday.

Debra Werner writes Roberta Ewart, Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s chief scientist, noted the new program will require the service branch to seek an approval for a unique type of memorandum of understanding from the State Department to lay out a program’s objective.

The Air Force will also no longer have to ask the State Department to endorse additional technical projects once the memorandum gets approved and foreign military agencies that propose technical projects will have to provide partners with a technical project agreement.

Cooperative research programs have already been proposed such as the Rapid Space Capabilities and Air Force Research Laboratory’s Microsatellite Military Utility to focus on combat support technologies and miniature satellites respectively.

The U.S. Army and Saab‘s Bofors Dynamics business unit have collaborated to test and qualify an updated shoulder-fired weapon system.

The service branch said Thursday Army engineers tested the M3E1 multi-role anti-armor anti-personnel weapon system, which a version of the M3 recoilless rifle that is shorter and six pounds lighter.

William Everett, Army Foreign Comparative Testing Program project manager, said the branch’s M3E1 team traveled to Sweden to observe and validate the manufacturer’s tests rather than duplicate the process in the U.S.

Renee Bober, M3E1 product manager, said the updates include a shot counter and modern materials that will work to address user input from the U.S. Special Operations Command and other services.

The shot counter is designed to address the need to half-life an M3, which occurs when a service member does not manually record each round fired as required by the current system, according to the Army.

M3E1 will be available for acquisition to all Defense Department services when tests and qualifications are completed in 2017, the Army noted.

The weapon system works to engage light armored vehicles, bunkers and soft structures.